Apostol Arsache (in Romanian) or Apostolos Arsakis ( el, Απόστολος Αρσάκης; 1789 – 1869) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

n politician and philanthropist. He was one of the major benefactors of 19th-century

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

, while at the same time he became a leading political figure in Romania. Arsache was born in the village of Hotovë,

Përmet District Përmet District ( sq, Rrethi i Përmetit) was one of the 36 districts of Albania, which were dissolved in July 2000 and replaced by 12 newly created counties. It had a population of 25,837 in 2001, and an area of . Its area has an Aromanian min ...

, modern southern

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and share ...

, then in Ottoman Empire. He was of either Aromanian or

descent. In 1800, Arsache moved together with his family to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, there he was educated in a school of the local Greek diaspora. Among his teachers was

Neophytos Doukas Neophytos Doukas or Dukas ( el, Νεόφυτος Δούκας; 1760 – 1 January 1845) was a Greek priest and scholar, author of many books and translations from ancient Greek works, and one of the most important personalities of the modern Greek ...

, prominent figure of the modern Greek Enlightenment. At 1807 Doukas published an

epigram An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two mill ...

composed by Arsache about the work, ''Breviarium historiae Romanae'', of historian Eutropius. He then went to the

University of Halle Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university in ...

and studied Medicine. Arsache composed a treatise under the title ''Ἔκθεσις συνοπτικὴ τῆς Ἰατρικῆς ἱστορίας'' (Coincise Report of the History of Medicine) in

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...

, which was published at the Greek periodical ''

Hermes o Logios ''Hermes o Logios'', also known as ''Logios Ermis'' ( el, , "Hermes the Scholar") was a Greek periodical printed in Vienna, Austria, from 1811 to 1821. It is regarded as the most significant and longest running periodical of the period prior to ...

'', in Vienna. At 1807 he published his thesis ''De Piscium Celebro et Medulla Spinali'' in Latin. In 1814 he moved to

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north o ...

, Romania. In the

Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filin ...

Barbu Catargiu Barbu Catargiu (26 October 1807 – ) was a conservative Romanian politician and journalist. He was the first Prime Minister of Romania, in 1862, until he was assassinated on 20 June that year. He was a staunch defender of the great estates of t ...

(22 January to 24 June 1862), he served as

Minister of Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between co ...

and following Catargiu's assassination on 20 June, Arsache briefly served as interim

Prime Minister of Romania The prime minister of Romania ( ro, Prim-ministrul României), officially the prime minister of the Government of Romania ( ro, Prim-ministrul Guvernului României, link=no), is the head of the Government of Romania. Initially, the office was s ...

. He became one of the major benefactors of the newly established Greek state. In 1850 he offered large sums of money for the establishment of a female educational institutions in the Greek capital,

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

, housed in a luxurious mansions at the city center. Arsache donated a total of 600,000 golden drachmas for this purpose. This institution bore the name ''

Arsakeio Arsakeion (Greek: Αρσάκειον), or Arsakeio (Αρσάκειο), is the name of a group of co-educational independent schools in Greece, administered by the ''Philekpaideutikē Etaireía'' (Φιλεκπαιδευτική Εταιρεία, "So ...

'' after him.Georgeta Filitti-Penelea – ''Apostol Arsachi''. În: PVB, 1995, 1, pp. 57–62.
Georgeta Filitti-Penelea – ''Apostol Arsaki – un personaj istoric uitat (Le docteur Apostol Arsaki (XIX s.)''. În: Magazin Istoric, 1996, 30, nr. 1, pp. 20–22
Dimitris Michalopoulos, "Apostol Arsachi", ''Revue Roumaine d'Histoire'', tomes XL-XLI (2001–2002), pp. 139–158.
Dimitris Michalopoulos, ''Arsaki. La vie d'un homme d'Etat'', București: Editura Academiei Române, 2008. Because of his initiative the Greek Parliament gave him honorary Greek citizenship. He also managed to build a school in his home town in 1870.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arsache, Apostol 1789 births 1869 deaths People from Përmet Romanian Ministers of Foreign Affairs Romanian Ministers of Interior Romanian people of Aromanian descent Greek philanthropists Greeks from the Ottoman Empire Greek people of Aromanian descent Aromanian politicians Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to Romania 19th-century philanthropists